Prototype: Equestrian Menace

Heller glared at Mercer as he crouched low to the ground, his sharpened claws glistening in the setting sunlight, trying to figure out how to kill Mercer this time because obviously consuming him didn't work all that well. His biomass shifted as he watched Mercer who was waiting patiently down the street.

Mercer on the other hand wasn't up for wasting time and playing around, he had a world to explore, so in an explosion of concrete he launched himself at Heller, a massive blade hovering barely an inch above the ground as his armored body picked up speed. Twisting his body around he slashed down at Heller, who caught the blade in his clawed talons, the metal clash sending sparks flying everywhere.  The ground cracked under Heller's feet as he refused to give an inch as Mercer steadily kept pushing with all his might.

Growling Heller grabbed his arm and pushed up and away, the blade and the claw still connected to it, both raising high above their heads as they struggled against each other, Heller's arms visibly shaking from the strain while Mercer's one arm was barely moving. He was using only one hand that arrogant son of a bitch, at least he thought that until he saw the gleam of a claw come rushing up to his abdomen. In a flash Heller lifted one of his legs and used Mercer as a springboard, the edges of Mercer's claw grazing his legs as he kicked away.

With a wave of biomass going down his arms again his left arm returned to normal while the other one grew metal spikes that jutted out at regular intervals up and down the entire arm before ending in one massive triangular point. Letting that arm hanged limp at his side he crouched down in preparation, the setting sun finally going down and the moon coming up on the other side, bathing both of them in foreboding dark light. Mercer looked up towards the moon and shook his head before he started changing back to his original self, no weapons or armor at all noticeable on him.

Mercer started pacing back and forth looking at him, each step a stomp sending cracks spreading outwards. "Heller come on now I don't have much time to dilly-dally so hurry up if you're going to kill me. So hurry up. Hurry up!" Mercer lifted a foot and held it there, suspended in the air for a moment before slamming it down into the ground, a clear series of cracks snaking towards him. Rolling to the side Heller dodged the glowing red and black spikes of pure biomass that erupted where he had been only moments ago and sent his whipfist, the equivalent of a bladed whip capable of cutting through tanks, flying towards Mercer's head.

Mercer simply leaned to the right while the spikes kept growing up into the skies above before they paused and seemed to turn and point down at him. Swearing under his breath he stood back up and yanked his arm back, the blades little more than a blur as the pointed end smashed into the back of  Mercer's head, knocking him off balance and stopping the avalanche of biomass that was about to hit him.

Seizing his chance he dashed towards Mercer, arms shifting back into that of the claws as he ran past the tower of biomass, and leaped at Mercer, arms raised high above his head the blades glinting in the light of the night, who only just then regained his footing. Bringing them down he sliced deep into Mercer’s shoulders lines of red appearing where his claws had sliced deep into Mercer’s skin.

Ripping his claws back out he again used Mercer as a springboard to jump away, his foot meeting jaw with over a thousand pounds of force, giving the audible and quite noticeable sound of a neck cracking. With a grin Heller backflipped away but was impaled by hundreds of small knifes of pure biomass, which proceeded to carry him into one of the buildings and slam him through the first wall, second and out back into the alley before the knifes left his body and retreated back through the holes.

“You know Heller I have to admit you’re not as stupid as I thought, or maybe I’m just getting too cocky?” Taunted Mercer as he calmly walked towards the hole, his arm straightening his head back into place. He smirked as no answer came, then the smirk disappeared as a series of rocks flew out of the hole, his hands flashing up to protect his face as the rocks kept coming, one of them actually managing to cut his cheek.

Rolling his eyes Mercer straightened his hand and gestured at the hole, a orange aura encompassing the hand, causing all of the rocks to stop in midair even as more came out to slice him. “You’re joking right Heller? I survived a fucking nuke and you’re throwing rocks at me?”

At the end of his sentence as if to add insult to injury instead of a rock, a dumpster flew out tumbling end over end towards him. Growling he smacked the dumpster away as it came within reach and noticed the black man clad in his black jacket and red lining on the inside, right behind the dumpster already swinging his blade.

Surprised slightly he ducked underneath the blade, his own blade forming as he sliced up and through Heller’s arm severing the blade off of his body, and caught him by the back leg. Pulling back on it he slammed Heller’s face into the ground before flipping him back up into the air heels over head, his blade ready to slice and dice Heller into tiny bits. But before he could get his chance, Heller’s bloodied stump of an arm shifted back into that of a whip and grabbed the edge of one of the windowsills above and catapulted himself up.

“Where are you running now Heller!? What happened to skullfucking my corpse, eh?” Screamed Mercer with a smile as Heller landed on top of the roof, who was glaring at him in turn. Heller squatted slightly before leaping high up into the air, an easy twenty stories high, his left arm shifting to match his right and shooting them both out, the ends of his whipfists latching onto the edge of the roof. His arms stretched as he kept going and as he reached the apex of his jump he used his arms to slingshot himself back down into the earth, a distinct whistling sound in the air as he flew back at Mercer.

“Shit.” Was all Mercer said as he jumped away, his hands brought up in front of his face to keep himself from being blinded as Heller slammed into the ground, a tangible wave of earth shooting up and away from Heller’s position. Coming near the ground again he kicked up and away as the wave died off, but not before Heller charged out his blade swinging at Mercer, the end somehow seeming even sharped under the moonlight.

Cursing, Mercer forced a quick wave of biomass down his arms, as he caught the blade another shower of sparks coming to life as Heller continued with his swing and forced Mercer back, in a flash bringing his blade back up. Like a angry black storm of fury he sent barrage after barrage at Mercer not letting up for a moment, knowing that if he did Mercer would somehow teleport or send him floating into the air like he just did with the rocks he had thrown.

It didn’t take long for them to head up the street to where the ponies had taken up residence to watch their fight, all of them panicking and running away even before they closed halfway distance, obviously smart enough to run when they came closer.

But not smart enough to run as far away as they could. Mercer ducked underneath one of Heller’s blade swipes ran him through with both of his claws, all eight of the razor-sharp talons going straight through his abdomen and threw him into the crowd a few ponies getting crushed and cut by Heller’s blade.

Rolling to a stop Heller slammed his free unchanged hand into the ground, the concrete easily giving way to his momentum, his blade held at the ready behind him as Mercer glowered at him. “Come on now Heller you can’t beat me, so just give up, already you brute.”

“Really, because I killed you once before, I can do it again!” He yelled as he stabbed the earth with his blade, his own series of spikes shooting through the ground towards Mercer. With a jerk of his legs Mercer hopped out of the way of the spikes and sprinted towards Heller. Heller looked up to see Mercer closing in on him and in a rush the biomass flooded back into his arm, all evidence besides the holes in the earth gone, as he brought his blade up to bear, the pounding of pony hooves sounding like the drums of war.

Without a word Mercer slammed into Heller, his right claw forcing Heller’s blade down the sparks lighting up the light while Heller’s left arm grabbed his left arm and held it there, the both of them shaking with effort to kill the other. As their faces were centimeters apart, Mercer wondered where Heller had gotten this new-found strength then dispelled that thought as he slowly lost ground against Heller.

With a growl his body started to glow a dim orange, erratic bolts rippling up and down his body and as the glow grew brighter and brighter he pushed harder and harder, Heller slowly, but steadily faster, forced further and further back before Heller headbutted him. Using that moment, while Mercer was caught off-guard and retreated, the crowds out of the way thankfully and by the sound of it completely gone.

“You know what Heller? I’m bored with you.” Muttered Mercer as he lifted both of his arms up, and suddenly Heller found himself floating in mid-air the laws of gravity gone. He flailed his arms as he was spun around in circles, the dizzying pastel colors and regular street colors making him nauseous.

Mercer looked on with glee as he twirled a single claw around in a circle, with the massive black man following suit, before pointing down. Not a second later Heller smashed into the ground, the magic pinning him to the ground. His arms shifted back to normal as he held his open palm down to the ground and kept pushing, as Heller tried desperately to get up.

“You see Heller let me give you a little lecture on genes, the Blacklight virus and my intentions.” Announced Mercer as he walked past Heller and threw him up into the air, his stolen magic holding him steady behind him. As Heller opened his mouth to interrupt, it was slammed shut as the magic closed around it.

“Uh uh uh, let me finish. Now do you know what’s special about your DNA Heller?” Asked Mercer nonchalantly as he float/dragged Heller behind him. “With every virus and each person, their DNA reacts differently, especially with the Blacklight virus.”

Mercer paused to throw Heller through a few buildings while he looked at a street sign. “Which way is it? Ah right down Emberton lane.” Mercer continued walking down said street. “Now with Elizabeth Greene the virus more or less turned her into a factory to produce new strains.”

“Sabrina Galloway, I think her name was, was able to manipulate my infected beasts to obey her instead of me. I didn’t mind but when you took that ability from her when you killed her, well that just didn’t go well with my plan. A few of the Evolved all had different reactions with the virus, giving each of them special abilities from the Bio-bomb to the Whipfist and so on.”

Mercer gestured and Heller floated in front of him. “You though, you were special. Your DNA literally resisted the virus’s ability to change so I had to infect you with a strain made just for you. That same DNA kept me from consuming you on the roof, you were going to be the perfect weapon for dealing with my little problem.”

Flicking Heller’s nose he continued. “At the same time I was both fascinated and scared by that development that I, I couldn’t consume you despite being the virus incarnate. But it was all for naught because you were too stupid to realize that I can’t be wholly consumed.”

Lifting both hands now he started playing Ping-pong with Heller and the walls of the buildings as he kept walking down the streets, one particular area in mind. “You see while you have some advantages over me, I have some over you. For example I’m the virus incarnate which means anything designed to kill Redlight or Blacklight viruses can kill me if I’m exposed to it for too long without first building up an immunity.”

“You are still part human which means it won’t have as quick of an effect, nor as serious of a one for you.” Mercer smelled the air and smiled as he detected a faint hint of salt and picked up his pace, crossing his arms behind his head as he studied the stars above. “I cannot tire as long as I can absorb more beings and more biomass. You can tire but you don’t need biomass to get energy back, you will need biomass to get one hundred percent back to normal but I’m sure even you get my point.”

“Now there’s some things I haven’t tried myself, because it could very well result in my death, so I’m stuck with only my hypotheses. I’ve thought of many ways to make myself die, because if I can find a way to die I can surely kill the only thing that is truly able to kill me.” Mercer stopped as he saw the edge of what he was looking for. He took a deep breath in as he tasted the salt in the air, Heller floating right behind him.

“One thing I thought of is what all humans have in common, they need to sleep, eat, reproduce and most important of all they need to breathe.” He finished with a lazy gesture of his hand and brought Heller in front of him, the clash of the waves sending sprays of water up over the edge of the docks.

“So let’s test it by seeing how long you struggle without air, hmm Heller?” Heller’s eyes widened at that and without further ceremony, Mercer flicked a finger and Heller shot out away from the edge of the docks and splashed into the water.

Mercer started whistling as he sat on the edge of the docks, swinging his legs over the edge and kicking them. He felt a slight presence on the back of his mind and realized it was Heller resisting his magic, with a roll of his eyes he slammed both his hands into the pier, forcing Heller back against the seafloor. As Heller struggled against him he thought of what he’d do now that Heller’s out of the way.

Beings of god-like power all in a place called Canterlot, Celestia the one who ruled over the sun, Luna the one who controlled the moon and succumbed to black magic, Discord a being of unmatched power. All wonderful targets to add to his collection of power and would finally let him achieve his goal and let him live out his dream.

But the bearers of the ‘Elements of Harmony’, or whatever they called themselves now. Six friends that somehow beat the corrupted version of Luna, imprisoned Discord, beat a tyrant named Tirek and countless other tasks all while living out a semi-normal life? Now that was true power and not all that far from Canterlot either since it was common knowledge that Celestia and her student regularly met with each other.

Then there were the countless other beings out there that could add little upgrades to his powers, however insignificant they might be. Yes this would be a perfect planet, then he might figure out how he got here and travel somewhere else. Satisfied with his plan Mercer stood back up and noticed that Heller had stopped struggling and shook his hand free of the magic, before turning around and walking towards the train station.

After all this place could be compared to Rome, just replace Rome with Canterlot and the expression all roads lead to Rome was perfect.

This was just going to be too much fun.